Many of the cities of the region have been heavily occupied and reconstructed since the beginning of the Middle Ages and reached their present shape during a second wave of prosperity in the later Middle Ages (Sinclair, 1989: 161). The cities of Amida, Arzan and Martyropolis, which were strung out on the mediaeval trade route, and Cepha represent the major cities of the region in the relevant periods, while others like Nisibis (Nusaybin), later Dara and Mediaeval Dunaysir (Kızıltepe) represent the trading cities on the plain (Figure 10) (Sinclair, 1989: 161). Because control of the Upper Tigris basin was essential for the struggle between Rome and Persia, many fortified cities of the
region10, most importantly Amida and Nisibis have a continuous and active role in the
offensive and defensive policies of the Roman and Persian Empires in Late Antiquity (Isaac, 1990: 252).
9 Marde/Margdis/Mardoi? See Kroll, Roaf, Simpson, and Sinclair (2000: 89) “Map 89 C3” in R. J. A. Talbert, ed., Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
2.3.1 Amida (modern Diyarbakır)
The city of Diyarbakır stands on the west bank of the Tigris and north of the Tur Abdin (Millar, 1993a: 209). It lies on the primary east-west route that runs along the Tigris and at an intersection of the route coming from Malatya and Harput past Hazar Gölü in the Taurus Mountains (Sinclair, 1989: 164-165). The five and a half kilometer long city walls are heavily defended with large towers and present supposedly the longest mediaeval city-wall in existence (Figures 12-13) (Sinclair, 1989: 167).
The city was the most crucial military base in the region due to its strategic position (Honigmann, 1935: 2, 4) and therefore played a dominant role during the Later Roman and Byzantine Empires (Sinclair, 1989: 166; Pollard, 2000: 288). In the fourth century, the city was fortified by the emperor Constantius (Ammianus Marcellinus 18.9.1 cf. Pollard, 2000: 288), and became the leading city of the province of Mesopotamia (Çevik, 2007: 113). According to Ammianus, the purpose of the fortification was to provide the inhabitants and their countryside neighbours a secure place of refuge (Ammianus Marcellinus 18.9.1 cf. Millar, 1993a: 209). The city remained an important military centre until 363 when the Romans based legions at Amida and Cepha only (Sinclair, 1989: 370; Pollard, 2000: 288), and surrendered Nisibis to the Sasanians (Isaac, 1990: 252). After that time the population of the city was swollen by the immigrants from Nisibis and after the walls were completed it may have become the market centre for most of the west half of the Upper Tigris Basin (Sinclair, 1989: 371).
2.3.2 Maipa/Martyropolis/Ioustinianopolis (modern Silvan)
The city of Silvan, with part of its mediaeval walls still standing, lies along a route which descends from the Taurus Mountains and then continues south to cross the Tigris at Hasankeyf (Figures 14-15). Its early history is something of a mystery, but the Barrington Atlas identifies it with Maipa (Kroll, Roaf, Simpson, and Sinclair, 2000: 89 D2). Some scholars identify this place with the first century Armenian centre of
Tigranocerta11 (Holmes, 1917: 120-138). The fact is that the exact location of
Tigranocerta is still problematic (Karg, 1998: 246). Sinclair notes some good clues to Tigranocerta’s location that point to the Arzanene region (Sinclair, 1989: 361). For him, the possibility that Silvan is the site of Tigranocerta imposes some difficulties. For example, Tigranocerta is located on a river, and although there is a tributary of the river at some distance from Silvan to the South the present city is not on a river (Sinclair, 1989: 361-364).
After 363, when the Upper Tigris became the northern border separating the Roman Sophanene from the Sasanian Arzanene, Maipa was still the capital of the region (Figure 7) (Sinclair, 1989: 363). Around 410 it was re-founded as Martyropolis by the Syrian bishop Marutha (Nicholson, 1985: 668) and the region around it served as not merely a political borderland but as a border separating varied religious groups in the region (Karg, 1998: 246). From the late fourth to the late sixth century, Martyropolis was used as a base for concentrations of troops as was Dara (Procopius 3.2.11 cf. Dewing, 1940; Sinclair, 1989: 374). Because it was near the frontier and at a good
11 The Armenian king Tigranes the Great founded the city of Tigranocerta and introduced the first city to the Tigris Basin somewhere between the Tur Abdin and the Taurus Mountains and it was to be his capital (Sinclair, 1989: 361).
distance from Amida (Procopius 3.2.4 cf. Dewing, 1940), it was converted into a major military establishment and used as a base for several expeditions into Arzanene late in
the sixth century12 (Sinclair, 1989: 374). At that time it was known as Ioustinianopolis,
indicating a major rebuilding under the emperor Justinian (Syme and Birley, 1995: 56, 65).
2.3.3 Arzan/Erzen
What we learn from the literary sources is that Arzan was one of the centres in the Arzanene region (Çevik, 2008: 243). However, its exact location is not defined in either the Roman sources or those available for the Middle Ages, and it has not yet been located by modern scholarship (Çevik, 2008: 243). There is general agreement that the location was completely deserted by the later Middle Ages as otherwise it should be possible to identify its location from toponymic evidence (Sinclair, 1989: 164).
2.3.4 Cepha/Cephas (modern Hasankeyf)
Cepha is located on the bank of the Tigris just after it begins its bend to pass around the Tur Abdin (Sinclair, 1989: 162). The root of the modern name Hasankeyf refers to “Kipani" (rock) in Aramaic, a reference to the cliffs that dominate the location, and took the form of “Kefa” and “Kepha” in the Roman Period (Arık, 1999: 795). The place lies on the route from Amida to Cizre (Jazira) and thence Iraq (Sinclair, 1989: 231- 232), thus as a place appropriate for passage across the Tigris it can be supposed that this location was settled from prehistoric times onwards (Arık, 1999: 795). It certainly
became one of the legionary bases on the north side of the Tur Abdin in Late Antiquity
(Sinclair, 1989: 370; Comfort, 2008a: 63). A fortification13 was built here by
Constantius II (324-361) and is probably where the later mediaeval town and castle stands, stretching back from the top of one of the cliffs cut by the Tigris to the valley (Figure 16) (Sinclair, 1989: 230; Miynat, 2008: 160). It is possible, however, that the legionary base occupied the flat area adjacent to the river crossing, a location now covered by the Lower Town of Hasankeyf (Arık, 1999: 795).
This place was one of the last surviving bases of the Roman superpower against Persia in Late Antiquity (Arık, 1999: 795; Comfort, 2008a: 42) and changed hands many times between the two empires (Miynat, 2008: 160). It was also a civilian city under the Late Roman Empire but reached its greatest prosperity under the Artukids in the late tenth and eleventh century as one of the magnificent centres of the region (Sinclair, 1989: 392-394). The major mediaeval monuments of Hasankeyf in the Castle area and in the Lower Town today represent a variety of the Early Islamic, Iranian- Seljuk and Roman-Byzantine cultural influences (Arık, 1999: 796; Comfort, 2008a: 63). The Castle area is now completely deserted, as is most of the Lower Town (Sinclair, 1989: 164) the part that will be inundated when the Ilısu Dam Project is completed.